Effect of Sea Buckthorn Leaves on Inosine Monophosphate and Adenylosuccinatelyase Gene Expression in Broilers During Heat Stress (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is a small shrub comprised of fruit and leaves that are rich in nutrients and bioactive components such as vitamins (Kudritskaya et al., 1989; Zadernowski et al., 2003; Luhua et al., 2004; Ranjith et al., 2006), amino acids (Yushipitsina et al., 1988; Repyakh et al., 1990), lipids (Goncharova and Glushenkova, 1993; Ul'chenko et al., 1995; Bekker and Giushenkova, 1997), sugars and acids (Yang, 2009), and flavonoids (Hakkinen et al., 1999). Recently studies have shown that sea buckthorn has antioxidant (Geetha et al., 2002a; Geetha et al., 2002b; Chawla et al., 2007; Piissa et al., 2007; Geetha et al., 2009), anticancer (Olsson et al., 2004; Ma et al., 2007; Boivin et al., 2007), antiinfective (Larmo et al., 2008) and exerts beneficial effects on liver fibrosis (Gao et al., 2003) and immune function (Dorhoi et al., 2006). Sea buckthorn decreases the damage of enzyme activity or hormonal metabolic organism status caused by immobilization or cold-hypoxia-restraint (Krylova et al., 2000; Saggu and Kumar, 2007), however, its effects on heat stress is unclear. Heat stress is one of the most universal stress factors affecting poultry (Gregory, 2010), and is a major contributor to growth restriction (Liu, 2011; Melesse et al., 2011). In addition, heat stress can also influence the meat quality and flavor of poultry (Miao, 2007; Chiang et al., 2008; Lu et al., 2009).